Scott Walker's Biography: The Lost Chapters

With news that Scott Walker will follow the path of other presidential hopefuls and pen a self-serving "autobiography" just in time for Iowa caucus activity, we thought we'd suggest seven chapters we know he won't write -- because he wouldn't want the political press covering his campaign to read them."The "Essence" of Dirty Tricks: Dropping out at Marquette."[i]

Scott Walker ceased participation in student elections at Marquette University after masterminding a scheme that destroyed newspapers critical of him.

Walker later dropped out of school, short of a degree.

Until recently, when national reporters discussing his presidential ambitions seized onto the story that Walker didn't finish his degree, Walker has refused to discuss his departure in any detail.

Walker has proffered a number of conflicting explanations, including the unbelievable explanation that a job offer -- not bad grades or worse -- was what led him to not finish his pricey degree.

His "dirty tricks" were decried by campus leaders at the time, though it hasn't seemed to stop his win-at-all-cost ways.

Walker at one point tried to minimize dropping out of Marquette, saying he had the "essence" of a Marquette education.

Though he promised them to newspaper reporters, Walker has never made his college transcripts public.

“The Koch Brothers, the Road Builders and Me: Pay for Play in Wisconsin”[ii]

Scott Walker was taped taking a call from a blogger posing as one of the right-wing Koch Brothers.

Walker’s intentions for passing his anti-union legislation were revealed in this call to have nothing to do with “reform,” as he now ridiculously claims, but everything to do with political power.

Walker downplayed the risible gaffe, but that didn’t stop him from continuing his relationship with the Koch Brothers, who poured money into Wisconsin at an unprecedented rate -- and who continue to fund initiatives that have turned Wisconsin into a Tea Party petri dish.

Along with the Koch Brothers, Scott Walker has bathed in more special interest money than any previous governor of Wisconsin, including the road builders, financial services and chemical companies who will benefit by deregulation that is rolling back generations of consumer and environmental protections.

Among the first bills introduced when Walker became governor protected elevator manufacturers.

"100 Percent: Anti-Abortion and Against Gay Marriage"[iii]

Scott Walker began his political career, shopping for a winnable seat in the Assembly after losing to Gwen Moore, not as any type of reformer, but as an anti-abortion zealot.

His first attempts at legislation had more to do with punishing women who had abortions -- and doctors who performed them. He's continued this absolutist hostility into his governorship.

Walker has continued to work against women's rights, declaring himself "100 percent" against abortion, even suggesting he would criminalize abortion in instances of rape, incest and the health of the mother.

Walker has also taken a hard line on the rights of gay individuals and supported the bigoted forces that opposed the state's domestic partnership registry.

Though he's fudging now that he could be facing a changed electorate and his positions could render him un-electable in a general election, Walker has long opposed same-sex unions of any kind.

"When Best Friends Go to Jail: the John Doe Criminal Corruption Probe"[iv]

Scott Walker's entire political inner circle was ensnared in the John Doe criminal corruption probe which operated for three years like a grand jury. While Walker himself avoided prosecution (though clearly was a target), six close aides and associates were convicted, including individuals who were present at the beginning of Walker's political career.

Walker spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on his criminal defense and employed lawyers who had defended Chicago mob bosses and ax murderers.

Among those convicted includes Walker's closest political aide Tim Russell, who was convicted of embezzling money from veterans and whose domestic partner was convicted on a child enticement rap. Walker hired or promoted Russell 8 times even after Russell had been fired for embezzling from another state agency.

Walker has given varying and shifting explanations for his role in the probe, how he cooperated with state and federal prosecutors, and even has gone so far as to suggest that the whole thing was his idea.

Freed from any gag order, Walker will in this chapter FULLY explain his role in a potential bid-rigging scheme, in the use of a secret computer network set up to evade public scrutiny and in behind-the-scenes conversations that turned his office as Milwaukee County executive -- and possibly as governor -- into an adjunct part of his campaign.

Pay-to-play? You bet!

"The O'Donnell Park Collapse: Making Sure My Political Career is Okay First"[v]

Just hours after Milwaukee County's O'Donnell Park collapsed, killing a teenager and seriously injuring a woman just before Milwaukee's Summerfest music festival, Scott Walker held a remarkably craven press conference where he, without any basis, preemptively declared that his policies of deferring maintenance had no role in the tragedy.

With the body still in the rubble, Walker exonerated himself.

New emails revealed in this chapter show that Walker's political team was scrambling in the hours after the tragedy -- not to help the bereaved family or check on the status of the injured; but to make sure that Walker's political fortunes were intact.

This cold-blooded political calculation is seen every day in Wisconsin -- whether Walker is kicking the children of working people off the state's successful BadgerCare program or in his utter indifference to embarrassing jobs performance.

Scott Walker's signature promise in his 2010 campaign, iterated during his 2011 recall campaign, was his PROMISE that he would create 250,000 private-sector jobs in his first term.

Walker released a mocking jobs "plan" to provide some kind of ideological heft to the single most prominent pledge he made to Wisconsin's public.

Of course, Walker instead pursued a radical agenda that had nothing to do with jobs, enacting historic cuts to job-creating investments in education, health care, vocational training, research and technology.

Walker is now backing off his jobs pledge, and literally erasing it from campaign literature, and for good reason: Wisconsin has plummeted from 11th to 44th nationally, with Wisconsin ranking last in the Midwest in every economic category.

“Ay Caramba-Making Wisconsin Like Arizona”[vii]

Scott Walker adopted the hardline Tea Party talk about immigrants.

This included his party promising to make “Wisconsin like Arizona” and adopt its controversial anti-immigration stances.

Now that he’s running for president, Walker seems to have had a change of heart and now takes pain to mention that one of his relatives married an Hispanic person.